Michael Ball tackles the idea of building a statue of Everton legend Neville Southall at Hill Dickinson Stadium
LIVERPOOL, ENGLAND - MAY 18: Former Everton goalkeeper Neville Southall acknowledges the fans after the Premier League match between Everton FC and Southampton FC at Goodison Park on May 18, 2025 in Liverpool, England. (Photo by Visionhaus/Getty Images)
View Image
I’m fully behind what seems to be a growing campaign for Everton to build a statue of Neville Southall at Hill Dickinson Stadium. I idolised Nev growing up when he was the best goalkeeper in the world and then I was fortunate enough to become one of his team-mates in his final seasons with the Blues.
The subject was a talking point when Everton were preparing to move to the new stadium. People were pondering what was going to happen to the Holy Trinity and Dixie Dean statues outside of Goodison Park while also discussing whether the club were going to bring a few more tributes to our legends by the Mersey waterfront.
The first one you would think of has got to be Neville Southall by an absolute mile. Other clubs have got more recent players at their grounds like Vincent Kompany, David Silva and Sergio Aguero at Manchester City while Arsenal have got Tony Adams and Thierry Henry who have done well for their clubs, but nobody has done more than Nev.
We’ve got the Everton Way, and he’s immortalised in that and the Everton Fan Wall, along with others, but Everton The Gear shared an image online of an idea to have Nev in the pose of when he was sat against the Goodison goal post, looking out from the West Stand across the Mersey and towards the mountains of his homeland of Wales. I know a lot of people might disagree with this, as it’s an incident that points to when the player was disenchanted with life at the club and it’s an act that he was punished for, but in many ways it sums Nev up, as he’s always done things his way and he was never a character who was conventional.
Content cannot be displayed without consent
It would show Nev in his own world. I liked that element of it as it wouldn’t be a typical statue and ticked a few boxes in terms of his attitude – he uses that image on his social media profile – and would be facing in the direction of his own country. However, I understand why it would not be everyone’s cup of tea, as others might want to recognise his achievements from his much happier times at Everton.
Regardless of the pose though, if Everton want to produce another statue for one of their illustrious former players, then Neville Southall has to be number one for me and I agree with Jamie Carragher in that respect.